It probably began in the early 1970’s with the gas shortage – when we learned to pump our own gas – “for our convenience”. Today we do SO much more ourselves from self-service checkouts at stores to making appointments online. We are always told it is for our convenience – and perhaps for a growing majority it truly IS more convenient to hop online any time we want and order everything from pizza delivery to books (both paper and on tablets), clothes and furnishings to making appointments to rotate tires. We have become a nation of people who do it themselves, especially online, and for the most part, we prefer it. HOWEVER, and it is a BIG HOWEVER, when things don’t go right, we also want instant assistance!

Customer Service is more important than ever, and with the prevalence of social media options, our dissatisfaction sometimes goes MUCH further than it used to. Even when a company does most of its business online, there should be a way for customers to immediately reach a person who can help. It may be just fine to let unhappy or frustrated customers know that they will receive a call back during regular business hours, but they want to hear it from a person- not an automated voice. They want to KNOW someone listened. Your answering service IS your customer service “person”. We are here to resolve problems when we can, and to reassure callers that someone will return their call. That is customer satisfaction – and it reflects well on your company.